Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8 28 2023

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Editing God for The Sake of Acceptance!

the promptings of the Spirit lead us in our most important relationships and in our efforts to love our neighbors as ourselves, including our private and public ministries but critically in our public interactions that incorporate our faith
and love for Christ..

Faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of our testimonies. “A testimony is a witness or confirmation of eternal truth impressed upon individual hearts and souls through the Holy Ghost. A testimony of Jesus Christ, born of and strengthened by the Spirit, changes lives—it changes how we think and live. A testimony turns us toward our Heavenly Father and His divine Son”.

But, having a testimony alone is not enough. As our conversion to Jesus Christ grows, we naturally want to testify of Him—His goodness, love, and kindness.
I read recently that we often hear the phrases “I am thankful” and “I love” more than we hear the phrases “I know” and “I believe.”

Honestly, I have struggled a bit in getting my head around the practicality of this. What “I know” requires speaking up… it requires injecting into a conversation something alien to the world. Testifying about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. Like, “I believe” Jesus intervened in this situation, or “I believe” the Holy Spirit opened this door…or “I know” God orchestrated this opportunity to…

Look at the Samaritan woman in John 4. Her testimony is simple. “Come, see” a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Simple enough for many to be intrigued to see for themselves, and when they did, they realized and believed that he was the Savior of the world. It changed an entire town instituted through the words of a woman entirely shunned by her community. She was so moved, so compelled to speak of what Jesus said, that it overcame her fear of being judged further or even ridiculed or harmed.

I remember as a young man of 26 or 27 going to a Catholic Christio weekend.
I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit that weekend. I was the owner of my own business back then and as I entered my office; I had determined to not mention my weekend. “it was private right? It is my personal faith, right? Truthfully, I was not comfortable testifying to my faith…about my God, even among people who knew me. So I actually purposed in my mind not to. The Holy Spirit had other plans. The moment I walked in it started. How was your weekend? Fine. What did you do? Stuttering, I replied, I went to a type of seminar… They replied, Oh, what was it about? I felt like they must have seen this deer in the headlight scene on my face. God was just not letting me out of this. He was actually putting me in a situation where I would either deny him or testify about him and I was totally, and completely out of my comfort zone. Fear rose up to choke my words… it rose up to stunt my spiritual growth…I must have been embarrassed. I certainly had no knowledge of how to support my new feelings or this new gift God had given me. They surely would not understand, heck I barely understood, so just sidestepped it…Just don’t engage in a meaningful conversation about Christ.
You know, we don’t talk about religion or politics, right?
Out of respect for… who exactly? Because they might be offended? Might be?
I was much more comfortable at church doing that. They understood. But not out here! I don’t know how to support how I feel or even what I believe if they ask a question.

Instead of saying I don’t know how to totally explain what I feel or what I believe… what I could say is “I Know” God is in this situation. “I believe” the Holy Spirit orchestrated this… I need to testify of His sovereignty in leading me here.. Of His goodness for doing this for me…His faithfulness in being with me in that tough situation.

We must testify of Jesus more often in our lives. Who are you? What are you becoming? Who are your role models and what do they look like? Who are you following? and Why? Let’s just cut to the chase. Are you embarrassed? Of what? Your God? Your faith in God? What has got a vice grip on your lips? Where is this fear coming from that literally prevents you from proclaiming and testifying to the goodness and faithfulness of “Your God?” Exactly who are you trying to protect Your image, your reputation? Are you just more concerned about not offending them?…whoever they are versus offending God himself by denying him? Oh, but we say, I am not denying Him I am just not speaking to that…I am not wanting any type of pushback or uncomfortableness or to say something about MY Faith that might offend a coworker or this casual neighbor…I am just trying to get along in this world without possible confrontation. (People get so angry today and so in your face.)
So let’s forget freedom of speech. I know that only works for one of those angry, in-your-face kind of people with no filter or apparent respect for someone else’s opinion. Not a conservative Christian! Look I don’t want to be shouted down and I am teaching my family to be safe and do the same. Don’t bring up religion or your faith because it might incite someone to hurt you or shout you down.
Are you listening?

What have Christians become? What is our testimony in the face of what God has called us to do and what he instructs us to proclaim? And we wonder why we possess this lackluster Christian walk. Why our prayers are unanswered…
Why we seem to struggle with the same deficiencies of flesh and will power.
Mark 10:33 says “But all who ·stand before others and say they do not believe in me [L deny/disown/stand up for me before people] I will ·say before my Father in heaven that they do not belong to me [ will also deny/disown/and not stand up for them before my Father in heaven.”

We cannot continue to go through life thinking these seemingly innocent edits regarding our faith and what “We believe” and what we profess “To Know” about our salvation and faith in Jesus. We have chosen not to look at this through the eyes of God and scripture.
We need to ask for forgiveness, repent, and start to TESTIFY
to the “person” that He is! Period!
Can you rejoice and proclaim that there’s an entrance to heaven at the end of your journey. . . . Does the absolute assurance of your forever home fill you with Joy and Peace? How could one not proclaim that from the rooftops as their shared testimony of what “You Believe?”